Indian Army grapples with arms, gear shortage

NEW DELHI: Long-winded procedures and bureaucratic bottlenecks continue to stymie the already long-delayed modernisation of the Army, which is grappling with shortages in several areas ranging from modern assault rifles, bullet-proof jackets and night-fighting capabilities to howitzers, missiles and helicopters.

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The Navy and IAF, however, have done much better. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday told Lok Sabha that 162 arms contracts worth Rs 1.33 lakh crore with Indian and foreign manufacturers were signed from 2012-13 to 2014-15. In the ongoing fiscal, 44 such contracts worth Rs 39,955 crore have been inked so far.

But the “persisting operational hollowness” in the 1.18-million strong Army is the big worry. Over 140 modernisation projects, worth over Rs 2.30 lakh crore, are currently meandering their way through the labyrinth of South Block corridors. “The Army contracts inked this fiscal amount to just Rs 5,800 crore,” said a source.

While a few of the 140 projects are new, most of them are years old. Induction of third-generation shoulder-fired ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles), for instance, has been hanging fire for over a decade now. Sources say acquisition of “Spike” ATGMs from Israel is among the 22 projects, together worth over Rs 22,000 crore, stuck in final commercial negotiations.

A stage ahead of these 22 projects are 10 contracts — worth around Rs 24,000 crore — awaiting financial approval and nod from the cabinet committee on security. These include the 4th regiment of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, two Pinaka rocket regiments and the medium-range surface-toair missile systems.

Taking note of the continuing delays, Parrikar at the defence acquisitions council meeting on Tuesday directed officials to ensure that 86 modernisation schemes for the three Services that are close to finalization — worth around Rs 1.5 lakh crore — should be wrapped up in the next four to five months.

Some delays also take place because of the Army’s formulation of unrealistic technical parameters (general staff qualitative requirements) as well as corruption scandals. “This often leads to the scrapping of tenders or RFPs (request for proposal) despite years being spent on initial processing and trials,” said the defence ministry source.